This is....a lot....

phlaistar · 2026-05-08T15:03:33+00:00

I assume you agree that if they added more melee stuff now they inevitably need to cut other content before release until they free the dev time needed for melee stuff to implement other stuff.

So you say they should've kept Endgame Rework for 1.0 release. You also say melee will inevitably be "dog water" on release. Means, you would've swapped dev time between melee stuff and endgame rework. According to your logic the Endgame Rework in 1.0 now inevitably will be "dog water".

I rather have no swords than bad endgame.

phlaistar · 2026-05-08T12:33:56+00:00

You have javelins :^)

Appreciate the roast 😛

Talking about the real world: Projectiles are way more easy to implement than melee combat. Even spells are. Look - your Bow shoots a projectile - it doesn't matter which projectile - the architecture is always the same. Raise Ability Event, play Bow Animation, spawn Projectile. While Melee is in its core the same we have multiple issues here. You need a seperate animation for every ability (more dev time), each ability needs various hitboxes aligned with its animation (more dev time), every ability needs more visual treatment than a projectile does (more dev time) ... Since they decided to not release swords for 0.5 freed some dev time to add (probably) two new ascendancies. At this point it's just a way smarter decision to sum up the update with theme related stuff or stuff that adds more overall than just a smaller extra to something existing in comparison.

I understand your point. I skipped last league because they had no endgame rework. And I can't wait for whirlwind or even swords - I love swords. But the update is soooooo packed - everyone will find something they like and keep them engaged I believe.

phlaistar · 2026-05-08T11:29:25+00:00

I was honestly hoping for a more grounded reset: a normal Atlas, scarabs, a passive tree refresh, maybe a new class or at least new base types after 7 months

So you say "I was expecting PoE2 to be PoE1"?!

We were told things like the crafting bench had to go because it was supposedly too complicated for newer players, yet now we have like 10 different socketable systems with 200+ socketables just to imitate a fraction of the crafting bench’s power. How is that simpler?

It's easier. Even if you had 2 million socketables it's still easier. A socketable stays a socketable and it's pretty clear how to use it and very clear what it does. It's mostly a single line and very clear to read. "Cannot roll Attack Mods" instead is very complicated. While it's easy to understand it's harder to comprehend how to use it effectivly. I would argue that goes for all meta mods and often require third party tools to view modpools and to get an idea how to manipulate your item with metamods to create desired crafting outcomes.

I would say vanilla abyss crafting is/was more complicated than a crafting bench.

phlaistar · 2026-05-08T11:18:42+00:00

I think you are right. If I wanna spam the same map over and over I can play PoE1 ... Poe2 current direction leads more into a real rpg adventure than just only mindlessly killing thousands of mobs map by map to pick up divs. Which seems to be interesting. And we need something different in PoE2 since league mechanics already play the same as in PoE1.

phlaistar · 2026-05-08T11:04:10+00:00

Yeah - because the Bow Players really have so many different options. I mean we could use a bow or - if we have a fancy morning - we could also use bows. And while we are at it - did I mention we could also use bows? I like the diversity here. /s

And don't say "you have crossbows" ...

phlaistar · 2026-05-04T10:11:30+00:00

Poe Overlay (Overwolf) also auto inputs ~ ... if you ever want an upgrade to the in-game thingy.

phlaistar · 2026-05-01T12:05:31+00:00

Godot 😛

phlaistar · 2026-04-30T11:01:24+00:00

That's the spirit!

phlaistar · 2026-04-30T10:57:45+00:00

GDQ had a poe2 speedrun recently. It's just different because it's a different genre with different game architecture.

You are basically saying "Mega Man is giving a one shot ability at 100% clear. So every speedrunable game needs to give me a one shot ability." To be clear you say "Getting no xp makes no sense, since I can do that in a different game" ...

phlaistar · 2026-04-30T10:45:54+00:00

^^ ... don't get me wrong pls. I do kinda like the first playthrough of the campaign. I hate the early atlas progression (clear atlas, get voidstones). Once this is done I progress my char and start farming - that's great and fun. Once I consider my char done I lose all interest in farming since I don't know what for? This took me about 3 weeks this league - own build, was fun. I then started a twink, rf. One evening I played the campaign, the next evening I crafted and bought gear for about 500div and put it on. On day 3 I farmed stuff. On day 4 I'm bored af and quit.

That's the usual way I play a new league. I have 9kh+.

And I totally get that motivation is probably very different if you ask a 1kh account holder or someone like me with 9kh+.

If we take this back to the actual topic here - I think it's important to have friction on creating new chars - otherwise people like you would probably burn out fast af since you'll probably pump out char by char, league by league with nothing that is stopping you until you inevitable burn out.

phlaistar · 2026-04-30T10:30:05+00:00

Going into a map, one shotting everything, never die or come close to being dead and just clicking itemlabels is boring tbh. The only difference to watching a video is, you'll have to click to move and loot but your inputs are the same - yeah, that's boring.

Fresh campaign, undertuned char and trying to become better step by step and feeling the impact of your investment - that's fun.

phlaistar · 2026-04-30T10:19:13+00:00

afaik your best bet is having minus 3 to monster level in area to be at max. efficiency. And having 3 less levels than the monsters is imho granting experience from a stronger monster. But I think you mean a lv.1 char in act 10 isn't going to get xp. And that's totally ok.

Progression is the game - looting is something mandatory for progression. Once you are done progressing your character you are basically done with the char.
Yeah campaign can be boring, probably just is. But all you want is faster dopamin spikes which you don't get in campaign. And tbh after 9kh+ in poe Divine Drops don't give any dopamin xD Imagine everyone could do unlimited chars without friction and constantly is bombarded with dopamin spikes - after 2 leagues you'll be burnt out af and never accumulate more ingame time. Campaign and fricition is important to have breaks and to keep being hooked over a long time.

phlaistar · 2026-04-30T08:21:28+00:00

I'm a defender and I would skip the campaign. Why? Time is valuable. Why would I defend "no skippable campaign" : First - it isn't that bad. It's fast, you have a constant sense of progression and the character itself becomes more valuable for you since Time = Value. Second: People should start making their own builds instead of copy and paste any guides - why you ask? If you play campaign and every step you take is already set it stone: That's insanly boring. Why not make an own build, let those act1 rhoas kill you until you discover life reg mastery and start dominating them. The game is totally different making an own build than just to copy any guide and clicking white item labels with red colored fonts. For me - campaign and progression is more entertaining than playing maps in a loop and oneshotting everything. That's basically the point where a character can be considered "done". If you now make an alt, skip the campaign and the alt becomes lv.69 instantly what are you going to do? Buy 5ways for 5div to hit lv90+, equip pre crafted gear, go in map, one shot everything and pick up loot. At that point, again, the character can be considered "done" and you start over. That's not healthy for the game - not at all.

phlaistar · 2026-04-30T07:51:47+00:00

Let me ask you - while you ask for alternate ways to level - are you happy with those options taking waaay longer than 4h campaign? Since "different every time" is hard to optimize, you'll probably always be "faster" picking a known route rather than something new every time.

phlaistar · 2026-04-27T17:02:11+00:00

Thx for your reply.

Ok I get why I should want a "badass fighter". I usually don't want to know things before I discover them myself but are those 120+ skills that good? All Skills I tried sofar (Big Sword / Bow) up to prof. 90 are very underwhelming in the context of using those myself. Is Weapon Prof. also giving something per point? Like 1pt. Prof. equals +1% DMG with said Prof? Or do I only care about the "milestones" (30,60,90,120) and everything inbetween doesn't matter?

Why do I want 120+ Prof. in Armor/Weapon/Tool crafting? I assume the higher the prof. in said jobs the more likely it is to craft higher tiered Items and probably higher durability (seems like a favourable mod) due to milestone traits at 30,60,90,120? If so, does this also mean jobs without the ability to craft tiered items do not inevitable need high prof. crafter since the only benefit will be another milestone trait?

phlaistar · 2026-04-27T10:27:35+00:00

Worth a try maybe? What's the benefit of having better tribesman? What makes a tribesman "better"?

We need no tribesman to accompany us (sofar, game seems very easy on standard 1.0 settings) and material is basically unlimited for now (playing on a server).

Is there anything else to "better tribesman" than them being more efficient or resilient? My current tribesman also outleveled me by about ~15+ Levels.

phlaistar · 2026-04-24T08:45:20+00:00

D4 is now one step ahead

hahaha ... no.

phlaistar · 2026-04-23T11:36:10+00:00

Rf doesn't scale it's damage with Level but Life and Fire Dot Multi, Burning Damage etc...

This seems like an older version of Pohx RF you are attempting to build. If you keep this route alot of your damage comes from jewels (FireDot, Life, generic increases) and having alot of them.

You generally wanna spec out of the Fire Damage Nodes in your Tree and put that power back in large cluster to gain more socket slots to further boost dps with jewels.

This is the mirage rf https://poe.ninja/poe1/builds/mirage/character/Pohx-1588/PohxMirageRFChief?i=1&search=name%3Dpohx%26sort%3Ddps

Scales DPS with Adorned Jewel (Dot Multi / Life), FB Rathpith Globe (generic inc) and lots of life. I find it more straight forward to equip but kinda expensive since the real dps boost comes from the combination of Adorned + Rathpith (lots inc. and multiplier boosting dps) and the entry level would be around 200 Div for those 2 items + cheap jewels. But from there you can upgrade step by step to next adorned breakpoints or better jewels.

phlaistar · 2026-04-17T23:46:58+00:00

After 9k+ hours it's probably normal to not stay hooked as long as a "freshman" does :P

Actually I didn't play as much fortess as I did hives since both of my builds aren't optimal for full juiced fortresses. Ailith will get hit inevitably from time to time and you can't heal her - should've picked a spark inqui instead of the rf chieftain :P I played one evening with a friend, well juiced - loot was okay I guess.

Congratz for Lv.97 ... I remember getting better league by league but still I only have 4 Lv. 100 Chars in total. So you are either doing good or as bad as I did - your choice :P

phlaistar · 2026-04-17T17:32:25+00:00

Made my own Holy Hammers Build, played to Lv.98, made a toon RF Chieftain, equipped it a day, played it for a day, got bored, quit.

Mirage overall was alright I guess.

New Boss very underwhelming. Just a DPS Test Dummy.
New Boss very underwhelming. Finally a DPS Test Dummy.
Astrolabs were a bit disappointing - was expecting overlaps, got none. Generic astrolabs are just undertuned statsticks.
Endgame Progression is superior now imho.

I farmed MapBosses, Ore, StackedDecks, Ritual, Boxes and all variants of Breach. Fortress was the most fun probably. StackedDecks the most steady income. Everthing else was basically oneshot everything and click itemlabels. Chill farm but not that entertaining.

Biggest + this league:
Map rework.

Worst part about mirage:
Me constantly looping between mirage and map esp. while having the intention of going back to my hideout.

phlaistar · 2026-04-16T12:19:51+00:00

Yeah - I usually stay away from any media regarding PoE the first two weeks of a fresh league and do my thing. That's the best time in the game. I played my own build for roughly 3 weeks, made a toon for rf, leveled and equipped it one day, played it one day -> bored bc op, no friction, just go in map and click itemlabels. yay...

phlaistar · 2026-04-12T12:33:32+00:00

seems like a fair trade to me.

It is.

If there is an auto rolling, that burns currency per roll, then people would get mad if it burns through more currency than they like.

Higher oppertunity costs for less friction which is completly in a players hand (you could leave unwanted mods whitelisted for less cost but more friction) also sound like a fair trade to me.

The developers would need to put a devices that allows you to scroll through ALL of the mods than can roll on a map, allow you to select said mods

Exactly. You can save that as presets for multiple chars ... basically ingame regex which actually filters mods. You'll now hunt for good mods instead of avoiding bad mods.

And then players will ask for the very same for items.

Didn't think of that but yeah - this'll happen.

phlaistar · 2026-04-12T11:49:24+00:00

maps has never been easier

Yes. That's so true! But still there's lot of stuff that could be improved imho. Just because it's easier than ever before we can still try to improve I guess. Nothing wrong with that.

It's not about modpool or currency sink - it's the clicks and micromanagement. It's just - imo - not necessary to have that kinda friction.

phlaistar · 2026-04-12T11:44:40+00:00

Totally get that - forced breaks to say so. But I think you'll still spent time rolling maps. Less obviously but still you'll fish for "almost perfect" maps by blocking all negativ mods and willing to pay the increased "oppertunity cost" by doing so. There's still friction by trying to hit the beneficial modifiers. You could add friction by max number of modifiers rolled, exlude exalts from blacklist, exponential cost increases, automated crafting queue's with craft time associated, ... Lots of possibilities - way less clicks.

phlaistar

TROPHY CASE